I reminded her that he gave us a down-payment on his promise to make education a priority by not only including jobs protection in the first stimulus package a year ago, but actually earmarking some of those jobs fund to protect school jobs - 300,000 teachers, school secretaries and custodians didn’t get pink slips because of those federal dollars that went right to schools.
Nostalgia is a powerful and often faulty lens. It can distort and makes the view seem at times softer and at times harsher than, in fact, it ever was.
I’ve been indulging myself in nostalgia these days as it occurs to me that my first 4th graders turn forty this year. Coincidentally, I turn thirty-nine. Go figure.
I have all their pictures hanging on the wall. They are gorgeous ten-year olds and it is quite impossible that they have pot bellies and graying temples and children in college. They will always be ten.
Likewise, my experiences teaching in the suburbs of Salt Lake City are frozen. Like the blood drive my 6th graders organized complete with our press releases written in curly cursive with every word spelled correctly.
The Mountain Man Rendezvous with tall tales of buffalo hunts and music on animal skin and wood and bone. The medieval fair with fair maidens in cone hats and tattered humble peasants who had to wait on swaggering obnoxious knights and the discussions of how our republic, based on equal rights, differed from a feudal system based on inherited family privilege.
Paul and Mark Richards are brothers who work for Congress. Paul was one of my students at Orchard Elementary in 1982 when he was in 4th grade.
The Shakespeare plays my friend, Sue, produced with kids who never before had turned in a written assignment on time, but who turned in perfectly delivered lines of Hamlet on opening night, covered in inner torment, (her inner torment at rehearsals, covered in Tums).
I know it wasn’t all quaint Norman Rockwell calendar pages. But it was good stuff. We did some really very good stuff to make our lessons come to life for our babies. We taught. The parents thanked us. The principal supported us.
I didn’t know that would all come to an end in so many ways.
During a faculty meeting, I ran down some suggestions I had for speakers, videos, book lists, etc.
I was on a roll with grade-appropriate ways for my elementary school, located in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, to help our students understand the importance of this man and the movement he lead in bringing the United States out of segregation and closer to its vision, that all of us are equal under the civil law and under the moral principles of humanity.
And I was ticking off ideas until one of our teachers innocently raised his hand, genuinely confused, and said, “Excuse me, Lily. I don’t get why we’re doing this. We don’t have any black students here.”
Yesterday I was on a distinguished panel. The title of the conference was on the banner above our heads: A Penny Saved – How School Districts Can Tighten Their Belts and Serve Kids Better.
I know when I’m being set up.
But I also know when I’ve been given an opportunity. I’m a fairly noisy teacher, and I don’t get asked to formal things like this often (at least I don’t get asked twice.) Just as well. I find that distinguished people are very polite even when they disagree with you. This audience was very polite and listened quietly, taking notes. Something that can be painfully unnerving to a 6th grade teacher.
The forum sponsors sent me research papers in advance that dealt with lists of ways school districts could save pennies like turning down the thermostats or firing teachers or charging families bigger fees for sports or music or AP classes.
I was supposed to react to their suggestions and offer my own about how we could “tighten our belts” and “serve kids better.”
It's National School Counseling Week. Meet the 2010 School Counselor of the Year at www.psea.org/general.aspx?id=6201 http://twitter.com/NEAToday
RT @SvilleSchools Standards-linked lesson plans for teaching the science of green buildings http://tinyurl.com/y87sc7z http://twitter.com/NEAToday
Cabot Creamery offering school grants to promote healthy lifestyles. More info at www.nea.org/grants/awards/35751.htm http://twitter.com/NEAToday
RT @priorityschools States have 2/8 deadline for federal School Improvement Grant apps. Details from Ed Dept at http://tinyurl.com/ydru89 http://twitter.com/NEAToday
Want to nominate someone for NEA's 2010 Friend of Education Award? Here's how: www.nea.org/grants/awards/31223.htm http://twitter.com/NEAToday
